checking out

When we left Kalimantan we had less than a week left on our visas, so sailed to Belitung where we could check out.  We were expecting it to be a long process so left a couple of days spare in case the offices were closed (it's a Muslim island, so is their rest day Friday, their holy day, or do they stick to a Sat and Sun weekend ??  It turned out that Sunday is really the only day when offices are closed.)

 Being well ahead of the fleet now, we knew we wouldn't be guided through the process as we were when we checked in in Kupang.  We tied our dinghy up to a helpful ferry boat who put down a ladder specially for us, and said they wouldn't be leaving that day.  They were able to guide us to the nearbye customs and port captain's offices, which seemed good places to start.  None of the five officers in the customs office knew what to do with us!  They made a couple of phone calls, and another man arrived who spoke good English.  He said he would take us to the Sail Indonesia rep in town, and borrowed a government car to do it.  After stalling a couple of times and crashing the gears he said that he was 'just learning'.  No driving test here, you learn on the job.  We slowly made our way up the street, turning right a few times in front of oncoming traffic, and nearly wiping a couple of motor cyclists off their bikes on our side of the road.  Luckily the traffic wasn't very fast moving.  He stayed in 3rd gear, and we put our seat belts on.  The Sail Indonesia rep wasn't there so that involved getting into reverse gear and turning round; only stalled twice, not bad.  Next to a government office to look for him.  Wrong office, so a uniformed lad led the way for us on his motor bike to another office.  Here we had to parallel park next to other cars.  He was having a triple dose of practise today.

  Another phone call, and a bit of a wait, and Joni turned up.  He is a local teacher who speaks good English, and who has been seconded by the government to help with the Sail Indonesia organisation in Belitung.  He was our facilitator, and did a grand job.  We had to go to 4 different offices, and had a government car and driver for our use.  There is so much paperwork and stamping involved that when lunch time came at 11.30 we were only half way through.  So we took Joni and our driver for lunch to a great local place where you helped yourself from bowls of food arranged around a room in a little wooden building.  It was very basic, but clean and delicious.  To our amusement the women who ran the place were busy taking photos of us on their mobile phones.  There is no tourist industry on this island and the arrival of 80 or so rally boats in a few weeks time is a major event for them.

  Finally, by 3pm, we had been to Immigration, Health, Customs, and Port Captain, and had given and received lots of papers at each, all duly stamped.  We worked out that about 20 people and 2 cars had been involved with something that in other countries takes 5 minutes and one official!  All very friendly, not at all officious, and they are obviously not overworked in their jobs.  The final fling was when our Customs man said that he would now come to our boat to check it.  We said that it was 30 mins each way in the dinghy (very slow because we need a new propellor, it is slipping so we go at walking speed) and he said OK, he was sure we were honest types!

  In the dinghy we had 4 empty diesel jerry cans, but by this time the fuel station was closed, so Joni said he would meet us the next morning at 9am.  We said that we could probably manage and maybe his class needed him.  However the next morning there were about a hundred jerry cans around the pumps, and a young lad said that there would be no fuel until 11pm.  Not good news as we had hoped to leave that morning.  Phoned Joni who immediately said he would be there, and he drove up on his motor bike only a few minutes later.  He pointed out another fuel station so G took the dinghy round while I hopped on the back of the bike.  Difficult to get the dinghy anywhere near as the place was full of rotting hulks of fishing boats;  he eventually tied up to a couple that looked as if they would float for a while, and clambered over to an equally decrepit jetty.  We were told we could only have 40 litres, not the 80 we had hoped for.  Fuel is difficult in this country.  It is heavily subsidised, so in theory only available to nationals.  We are not allowed to buy direct, and, to prevent resale at higher prices, jerry cans may not be transported in another vehicle.  Also supply is poor and fuel stations often run out, hence the rationing.  Don't know what Joni said, but they filled up all our containers, and for the first time we paid pump price.  Normally about 75% is added on which is a nice little income for the boat boys who take our cans.  Also the cans never contain quite the 20 litres that we pay for!  It was a very slow journey back to Pegasus with our heavy load, but we were free to go.